Meet the Tamer
by flipfloppingotaku
Summary: It's another tenth class fic. I can practically taste how impressed you are.


**Hm. I'd say that this was a stroke of genius inspiration after pursuing a fleeting and fickle muse with shining rippling muscles, a skimpy loincloth and a face hauntingly similar to Seto Kaiba through a field of bright flowers until I finally lost him in the forest where he ended up leading me to a romantic babbling brook, then descended from a tree to grab me from behind and throw me to the ground where he proceeds to strip me of my own clothes as we roll in the soft grass kissing passionately until he's towering over me with his overwhelming manliness as we made sweet passionate love…**

…**but we all know that this is just another lame intro for a lame tenth class and that it's ripping off much better writers like . I don't own TF2 or Valve, or even the tiny, tiny box I live in outside the Walmart.**

* * *

Meet the Tamer

* * *

It couldn't have been an easy transition. The team wasn't all too sure of the newbie's background, but their first impressions had been…interesting, tosay the least. Her dark skin was only a few shades lighter than Demoman's, and her slight accent betrayed her origins as Indian. It must have been some kind of attempt by the Administrator to cover all aspects of the globe by including her, but no one had dared get close enough to speak to her properly yet. It wasn't that they were afraid of her, far from it in fact, Engie at least was sure that she was a perfectly nice gal. The only trouble was…

Her pet.

* * *

The moment she had gotten off the train to 2fort, she was greeted very amiably by the Texan and Heavy. They had received information that at least one of their new teammates belongings would be a bit heavy and bulky, so he had quickly volunteered to help carry the baggage. Once the aforementioned giant crate was unloaded from the train, Heavy tried to pick it up, only to have the box roar at him.

"Oh dear! Raj are you alright? They didn't treat you badly did they? I promise I'll let you out soon."

Whatever was inside that crate seemed to calm down as the woman, code named Tamer, approached it. Suddenly her assigned name made much more sense. The box was twice as high as the woman and heavy was apprehensive at best about trying to get near it again.

"Something is alive in big box…" The giant Russian said, clearly surprised. "And sounds angry."

"Well, you would be too with sub-par transportation like this." Said Tamer. She looked around frantically until her eyes locked on the still stunned Engineer.

"Say, do you have a crowbar or something? I have to let Raj out soon or he might throw a fit."

"Uh," The Texan had to shake away his surprise before being able to answer her properly. "I know I have something like that somewhere, let me take a look…" He bent down and started looking through his toolbox. The moment he found what he was looking for, tamer snatched it with a hasty 'Thanks' and began working at the side of the crate with a growling something inside.

Her progress was a bit slow and Heavy soon stepped forward again.

"Does little girl need help?"

Tamer looked up at Heavy, grateful for his offer.

"Thanks big man, I sure could."

With Heavy working at the other side of the crate they were trying to open, the panel soon fell to the ground and some appreciative growling came from inside. The enormous beast inside the box was nothing less than an enormous tiger, complete with stripes, claws, and the nastiest set of teeth you ever saw. It stood at least as tall as Heavy, who looked the big cat right in the eyes, clearly dumbstruck. As a small oddity, the cat also had a great big bandanna tied around its neck, Red like its master's uniform.

"There you are Raj!" Tamer said gently to the massive feline. "Hope it wasn't too stuffy in there for you."

The massive cat lowered its head and allowed Tamer to embrace its thick neck, letting deep purrs rumble from its throat.

"Oh gosh, how rude of me, boys, this is my partner Raj." Tamer said to the two men present.

* * *

Heavy and Engineer retold their encounter as best they could, but most of the team had already at least seen the massive beast that was at least twice time the size of a normal tiger. What the hell did that thing eat? Apparently the animal counted as one of the new Tamer's weapons, so it was allowed on base. While the majority of the team discussed how best to cope with this new teammate, it was of course Spy who casually slipped away from the others to learn more about the newcomer and the beast.

The experienced agent silently admitted that he wasn't too fond of the idea of facing the feline in a fight, so he opted to skip straight to snooping. The Tamer's room was closer to the Respawn room and exit for the battlefield, no doubt to more easily release her fearsome creature during fights, but that also meant it would be a little easier to sneak into. The layout of their ventalation system was similar to that of the BLU's, so it was easy enough to find the shaft that was directly over the Tamer's room. Once he was there, he cloaked and peered through the grate, getting his first real glimpse of the girl and her beast.

The room had been redecorated rather quickly. He saw that the standard issue bed had been stripped of its mattress and its frame shoved in a corner. The tiger itself was sitting on the mattress, watching its master put away personal belongings and arrange her closet. Appaerntly she intended to sleep with the monster. There were a few large toys strewn about the room as well, bright colors faded and many even sewn up or otherwise repaired. Those were clearly the tiger's things. The Tamer was speaking aloud as she worked, and if Spy didn't know better, he'd say she was talking to the tiger.

She was speaking in a Hindi dialect. Spy was a bit rusty with Asian languages, but fortunately the dialect she used was a common one, so he could make out most of what she was saying.

"_Heavy and Engineer seemed nice enough, they did help me get you out of that stupid box after all, but I haven't even seen most of the others yet._" She paused and looked at the tiger as if expecting a response. A light growl seemed to satisfy her. "_I know I haven't sought them out, I just wanted to make sure the room was comfortable for you first. Our job officially begins tomorrow, and I want us to do our best. It wouldn't do if either of us were cranky in the morning would it?_"

The tiger let its head rest of its paws after a hearty yawn.

"_Heh, I thought you would see it my way._"

The woman returned to looking at her closet full of identical uniforms, all red shirts with a slight v-neck and dark mid-length pants with boots that covered the other half of her legs. For headgear there were several red bandannas that matched the one on Raj. As she tried on her new clothes, Spy couldn't help but admire the subtle curves of her hips as she tugged on her pants, or the way her lite arms strectched into the long sleeves of her shirt.

What? He was a connesuier of the female form, he could admire a woman's figure for what it was without allowing his thoughts to fall into the gutter as other team members would have. Namely Scout and Demoman.

The Tamer didn't have any guns with her at the time, but her own unique weapon did catch Spy's attention. A long leather whip that tamer carefully coiled up in her hands and set on her belt. Spy wondered just how useful a whip would be in battle where guns and explosives were much more prominent, but the Mann companies would only hire the best, so presumably she was very good with it. He would find out soon enough tomorrow anyway.

"_How do I look Raj?_" Tamer asked her beloved tiger.

The cat lifted its head slightly and seemed to actually look over its master with a critical eye before just laying back down, uninterested. Tamer just shook her head at the feline and paced about the room, no doubt breaking in her new boots. Spy watched her for several more moments, hoping something more interesting would happen. He shuffled to prop his chin in his hand to get more comfortable when suddenly the tiger's head came up again. The beast sniffed the air and growled in the direction of the ceiling. Realizing that the predator must be smelling him, Spy quickly cloaked invisible, but that didn't stop Raj's growling.

Tamer looked at her pet, who was sensing some kind of intruder.

"_What is it big guy?_" She asked, watching the tiger rise from the mattress and growl directly at the air grate in the ceiling. "_Is someone watching?_"

In what felt like one of the wisest decisions of his life, Spy backed off ever so slowly, careful not to make any sound as he left. Eventually, the tiger gave up on its growling and Spy was safe to sneak another day.

_So the pussy cat can tell where I am, even cloaked. Another Spy checker seems redundant, but at least the animal will be useful in the field._

* * *

The next day after breakfast, the team met in the Respawn room as per usual to prepare for the days battle. To the surprise of everyone, Tamer came in without the monster she called a pet. She was however, decked in all of her gear, the whip hanging from her belt an assault rifle in her hands and a hunting rifle on her back. She was clearly a mid to long range fighter like Demo or Soldier. Around her neck was a tiny whistle that they hadn't seen before, but some easily guessed what it was meant for.

Even without her massive cat present, the others were hesitant to speak with her. Even Scout was doing his best to avoid eye contact with the dark skinned woman. Eventually, Sniper found the will to break the ice and approached her, the rest of the group pretending to clean their weapons or count ammo while they were really trying to listen in on the conversation that was about to happen.

"Tha's an odd choice for a weapon mate." Sniper said gesturing toward tamer's whip.

Tamer herself seemed a little surprised that someone actually approached her and it took a moment for her to make a response.

"My Dad was a lion tamer in a circus. I learned the basics from him and kinda worked out the fancier moves myself."

When she took the job, Tamer had been told that all of her colleagues in the field would be men. Naturally this made her wary, she had heard of how men could get in high stress, life or death situations without any women around. Her first impressions of heavy and Engineer were alright, but even they had been avoiding her when they saw Raj. Her lifelong friend usually had that effect on people, it often made her a bit lonely. While she was grateful that _somebody_ had finally manned up and made the effort to talk to her, she also wasn't entirely sure of his motives.

"So, where's the big bugger what keeps followin' you?" The question on everybody's mind.

"Oh, you'll see him out there soon enough."

"MISSION BEGINS IN SIXTY SECONDS."

The countdown had officially begun and the team braced themselves one by one to run out and enter the fray. There was still a little time to learn more about Tamer though, and Sniper was genuinely curious.

"Tell me, wha' exactly attracted you to this job of all things?"

Tamer shrugged. "Taking care of Raj is expensive y'know. Not many options in terms of what to do really. He gets anxious without me so a zoo was out of the question, and I wasn't about to let him into the wild, he likes people too much,."

"MISSION BEGINS IN THIRTY SECONDS."

Tamer figured that the first questions asked of her would be about Raj. If anything he was a great conversation starter. Sniper smirked at the last thing she said, apparently out of amusement, but mostly out of what she meant by 'he likes people.' He had taken down some big and dangerous game in his day, but this particular tiger was far bigger than any other he had seen. This brought up another point, if RED team had a Tamer, that had to mean that BLU would too. His smirk then became genuine, it was like hunting in the bush back home again. Only the predator here would be that much more challenging.

"MISSION BEGINS IN TEN SECONDS."

Satisfied that he was now on speaking terms with the newbie, Sniper readied with the others to move out the moment the door opened.

And then it did.

And they were off.

* * *

Tamer was turning out to be pretty decent on the field. When not ducking like and shooting, she was out lashing with her whip, whirling it around her with expert skill. More than once the leather cord would wrap around some unfortunate BLU's neck or other limb and snap it like a twig, its owner all the while grinning like a fool. It was one thing to practice her whip techniques, it was another to actually have a chance to use them.

Unfortunately, her fancy tricks also made her a massive target with lots of openings, and as she tripped up the BLU Demoman that was trying to chase Scout, the BLU Soldier caught her across the back with a painful spread of a shotgun blast. He was a bit of a distance away, so the blow wasn't instantly fatal, but it did send her face first to the ground in agony. Her back was completely shredded and it was a real struggle to even get to her elbows. Tamer had accidentally hit herself with her own weapon plenty of time while practicing, but that was nothing compared to the pain of having nearly no skin on her back.

"YOUR FANCY ORIENTAL TRICKS ARE NO MATCH FOR GOOD OLD AMERICAN FIREPOWER!" The enemy sergeant yelled, clearly enjoying what he was doing.

As the BLU Soldier came nearer to finish her off with his shovel, tamer hastily grabbed at the whistle around her neck and placed it to her lips. The sound that came was sharp, and made her foe hesitate only for the barest of moments.

"THAT WAS THE MOST PANSYISH DEATH CRY I'VE EVER HEARD MAGGOT!"

His shovel was raised, and ready to make Tamer's skull cave in. Sniper saw it happening through his scope, but he had already unloaded a shot into the BLU Heavy and hastened to reload and cover the newbie. That was when something neither he, nor especially the BLU Soldier saw coming. Moments after Tamer had blown that whistle, Raj came charging in, teeth bared and roaring like the majestic beast he was. The Soldier had time only for an unmanly yelp of surprise before those fearsome teeth bit his head clean off, staining the tiger's orange coat to a much darker shade. Even after the Soldier was dead, the big cat kept tearing into the corpse until it was _sure_ that his master's attacker would not get up.

Once he was done, the tiger went over to his wounded master and dropped the Soldier's head in front of her, clearly pleased with himself.

"Aw, a present for me? You spoil me Raj!"

She struggled to her feet with the help of the giant feline and began calling for the Medic. Sniper was impressed to say the least by the brutal display, though the way Tamer treated the dangerous thing like a kitten that killed its first mouse was a bit unnerving. Still, he was glad the newbie was alright.

* * *

At the end of the day, the RED team had won again and now everybody had seen what Tamer could do and were much more welcoming. They had a campfire that night to celebrate, and Tamer brought Raj to join the festivities. The team was understandably apprehensive at first, but when the giant tiger just lay down by the fire as if it were a housecat, the matter appeared to be settled anyway. At one point, Scout even worked up the courage (or the drunkenness,) to ask if it was okay to pet Raj. Tamer assured his that it was safe and Scout carefully placed a hand near the tiger's forehead.

This caught Raj's attention, and he carefully smelled the hand offered before, much to everyone, even Tamer's surprise, the beast leaned into the touch. Before the night was over, half the team was passed out around the fire, Tamer and Scout leaning on each other as they dozed against Raj's side. The big cat didn't seem to mind a bit and nodded off himself.

Yep, they were gonna get along just fine.

* * *

Long Range: Hunting Rifle

Mid Range: Ak-47

Close range: Whip

Special: Tiger call- will summon Raj for a short time to kill the last player who hit Tamer

* * *

**I realize it's incredibly unoriginal, but I still want honest opinions...VALIDATE MY EGO DAMMIT!**

**-is dragged of fin a straight jacket-**


End file.
